him. They all with one accord look forward
beyond the calamities of the present time, and the heavier impending
calamities which they are commissioned to foretell in the near future,
to the glory of the latter days, when Zion shall be made triumphant over
all her foes, and the whole earth shall be given her for her
inheritance. The apostle Peter, in his address on the day of Pentecost,
quotes a remarkable prophecy of Joel (2:28-32, compared with Acts
2:16-21).

The opinion of some commentators, that under the figure of
locusts are represented simply hostile armies, must be regarded
as forced and unnatural. More probable is the opinion of
Henderson and others, that the prophet uses an actual invasion
of the land by locusts as the type of a more formidable invasion
of foreign foes. But there does not seem to be any valid reason
for departing from the simple interpretation above given.

III. AMOS.

7. Amos prophesied "concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of
Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two
years before the earthquake" (1:1). The time of this earthquake, which
is simply mentioned by Zechariah (14:5) as occurring in Uzziah's reign,
cannot be determined. We only know that Amos must have prophesied
somewhere during the last part of the reign of Jeroboam II., when he was
contemporary with Uzziah. Amos was thus contemporary with Hosea, and was
a considerable number of years earlier than Isaiah, who began to
prophesy near the close of Uzziah's long reign of fifty-two years. The
very specific date "two years before the earthquake" indicates that his
whole mission to Israel was executed within a single year, perhaps
within a few months. It seems to have been after his return to Judah,
when at least two years had elapsed, that he collected his prophecies
and put them into their present form.

Amos describes himself as one of "the herdmen of Tekoa," a small town
southeast of Bethlehem on the border of the wilderness of Judah. 2
Chron. 20:20. It belonged to Judah, whence we infer that Amos was
himself a Jew, a supposition which agrees well with the advice of
Amaziah: "O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and
there eat bread, and prophesy there" (7:12). He speaks of himself as "no
prophet, neither a prophet's son" (7:14); which means that he had not
been trained up for the prophetical office in any school of the
prophets, as were "the sons